No prizes for guessing where improvement is required in these two teams. On a less than inspiring afternoon in the Midlands, when antics on the touchline provided more entertainment than events on the pitch, Newcastle were denied three points through a combination of Brad Guzan’s goalkeeping and the absence of a cutting edge in front of goal.

Alan Pardew’s side controlled the game in the second half, creating a number of decent chances, but they finished up playing with 10 men, after Mike Williamson picked up a second yellow card in the 90th minute, and departed lamenting their failure to punish an Aston Villa side that was unable to register a shot on target throughout.

At least Roy Keane found his range. Furious with one of a number of offside decisions that went against Villa in the second half, the assistant manager threw a water bottle from the dugout that hit Paul Lambert where it hurts. Lambert laughed, which was probably a sensible reaction. “You try and tell him to not throw a bottle,” the Villa manager said.

In the opposite dugout Pardew’s behaviour had already provided a source of amusement. Swaying from side to side and using his fingers to pull a wide grin, the Newcastle manager looked like one of those fathers embarrassing his children on the dancefloor.

It turned out that he was trying to get the out-of-sorts Rémy Cabella to relax and enjoy his football. “I just felt that he was trying too hard,” Pardew said. “He had a lot of publicity last week and I felt he was a bit tense. He had a couple of great situations and didn’t deliver and that’s not like him, so I was just trying to get him to play with a smile. I thought he was better in the second half.”

Plenty of chances came and went for Newcastle in that period. Daryl Janmaat’s header was tipped over by Guzan, the Dutchman also went close with a left-footed shot and Williamson – the wrong man in the right place – mis-kicked on the corner of the six-yard box. Ayoze Pérez might have done better from a not dissimilar position and Siem de Jong, another late substitute, could have won the game two minutes from time when he broke into the area but shot too close to Guzan. “A lot of good things without the killer touch,” Pardew said. “But I think we’ve got goals in this team.”

Lambert believes the same will be true of Villa when Christian Benteke and Libor Kozak are back from long-term injury. Villa showed some promising signs in the first half, with Aly Cissokho and Alan Hutton both breaking forward with intent from the full-back positions. Tim Krul, however, was not exactly overworked; Charles N’Zogbia headed on to the roof of the net and later curled a 25-yard free-kick wide but that was as good as it got for Villa.

Lambert, though, was upbeat after seeing his side pick up four points from the opening two matches. “It’s a great start for us,” he said. “After everybody was doom and gloom about the football club towards the end of last season, we’ve certainly took that challenge on.”